Since we live on acreage with a half-acre pond, ducks call our home their home. This year, a mother duck decided to make her nest in our front planter. It’s been interesting to see her do this. I know nothing about Mallards, so if anyone can help me figure out her thought-process, I’d love to know what’s going on.
This is here, behind my wilting winter cabbage. She showed up last Wednesday, laid one egg, then disappeared with the father. The next morning, she was back. Laid two more egg, stuck around about an hour, then disappeared. Saturday, she laid two more, so now five. She covered them up with a lot of dirt, but disappeared the rest of the day.
She’s only sitting on the eggs about two hours a day. We’re having a cold spell in the mornings in the 30s. This doesn’t seem condusive to hatching ducklings to me. I thought a bird sat on her nest most of the time. This Mallard takes off after about 11:00am and I don’t see her until the next morning around 9:00am. If these ducklings do hatch, it’ll be pretty cool. I have a front row view from my office window.
I called the Idaho Fish and Game to find out more about my momma duck. While she’s been laying eggs sporadically, they are viable. He said that they lay one to two per day, but they won’t “spoil.” When all the eggs are laid, she won’t leave the nest nearly as often. True to this, she has about 12 eggs as of Monday and now she’s been on the nest most of today. I’m looking forward to the big day and I hope I will be around to watch. I’ll take pictures through my office window and post them if I can catch the babies before they leave and waddle to the water!
CALL US when it happens. The kiddos would love to see it.
Hope Coaco can leave the new chicks alone. We had a yorkie named Sophie who thought some ducks were her babies and would NOT leave them! 